House passes bill making it easier for Congress to sue president, Obama threatens veto

U.S. President Barack Obama smiles as he laughs with guests as he signs a presidential memorandum increasing overtime protections for workers during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on March 13, 2014. The White House stated that the president would veto the "Enforce the Law" legislation the house passed last night to make it easier for congress to sue the president. UPI/Pat Benic | License Photo

The House of Representative passed the “Enforce the Law Act” Wednesday, a bill that would give Congress the power to sue the president when he is not executing the law.

The bill gives lawmakers the power to file suit directly to a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court and to appeal directly to the Supreme Court.

Bob Goodlate, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said, “President Obama has refused to enforce those parts of our nation’s immigration laws that are not to his political liking, has waived portions of our welfare laws, has stretched our environmental laws to accommodate his policy objectives, and has waived testing accountability provisions required under the ‘No Child Left Behind’ education law.”

“From Obamacare to welfare and education reform, to our nation’s drug enforcement and immigration laws, President Obama has been picking and choosing which laws to enforce,” he said. “In place of the checks and balances established by the Constitution, President Obama has proclaimed that ‘I refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer’ and that ‘where [Congress] won’t act, I will.’”
“It is simply another attempt by the majority to prevent the President of the United States to implement duly enacted legislative initiatives that they [the Republicans] oppose,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. said.

While the bill passed the Republican-controlled House, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said it would be “dead on arrival” in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Regardless, if the bill makes it through Congress, the White House has already said the president will veto the legislation.